Earlier this week, Erykah Badu released her “Window Seat” music video. Erykah Badu will not be charged for indecency or violating any law for her part in the much talked about video.
The video meant to be a social statement about how we are judged by others also included a striptease. Badu walks through the streets of her hometown Dallas while slowly removing her clothes. Eventually, Erykah is butt naked in front of real people (not actors!) including young children. A Dallas police officer told MTV if Badu had been reported, the combination of indecent exposure and the presence of children could have landed her a maximum fine of $4,000 and up to one year in jail … or both.
The bootylicious singer was yelled at by the passerbys near Dealey Plaza, the infamous spot of John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. The JFK assassination site was selected by Badu for its metaphoric value. She wanted to deliver a message that one’s character would be assassinated if you bared yourself completely to the world. A shot goes off at the end of the video and Badu falls to the ground, its very dramatic but was she right for shooting the video the way she did? “I tied it in a way that compared the assassination to the character assassination one would go through after showing his or her self completely,“ Badu told the Dallas Morning News. “That’s exactly the action I wanted to display.”
Badu wrote the following on her Twitter:
funny thing is, the physical nudity is nothing lol . i been naked all along in my words actions and deeds . thats the real vulnerable place
hours before i talked to mama. she said she wasnt fully in favor but she had my back .
we only had 1 shot to get it right. we didnt plan the shot. too busy lookin for cops and being petrified
i remember tweeting that day. “okay here goes nothing” i felt like i was going 2 do something life threatening.
the people caught in the shot were trying hard to ignore me
heard people yelling diff things @ me but i held my head up and kept moving. there were children there. i prayed they wouldnt b traumatized…
they were yelling , THIS IS A PUBLIC PLACE : YOU OUGHTA BE ASHAMED: PUT YOUR CLOTHES ON: DAMN GIRL! etc…
funny, i thought i was outta shape thus encouraging others toward self love .. but they think im showin off. lol. the irony
Erykah if you wanted everyone to see your azz, you should have found a strip pole! The message, the video, etc. very creative and I can appreciate the metaphoric value but not in front of young children. No broughtupcy! (If you don’t understand Caribbean Ebonics, you better ask somebody!)
Erykah you should have gotten a permit and shot the video on a closed set! Lucky for her, no one filed charges and, for now, Badu will remain free but now her character is definitely now up for assassination.
Of course, Badu didn’t do all this for naught! The publicity stunt and resulting video coincided with the release of Badu’s new album “New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh” .
